Using PCTeX 6 on a network

With the November 2007 release, PCTeX may be installed on a network server and accessed by clients. Clients will not have to install PCTeX 6 on their machines and can access all needed files from the server. (Clients will have to register their product code on each machine they use, though.)

Server side

To install PCTeX 6 on a server, complete the following steps:

  1. Install PCTeX 6 on the server. It is recommended that you install a CD-ROM version of PCTeX and do a full installation. If you do a regular installation PCTeX will operate correctly, but will require users to install TeX packages on each machine.
  2. When asked for the Registration Code, enter the Server product code you were sent.
  3. When PCTeX first starts, it will ask for a TeX archives path. PCTeX will recommend a path, but you may change this. This path must be readable by clients.

That's it. Periodically, the network administrator should run PCTeX on the server and check for updates (Help..Updates). PCTeX releases an update every 4-6 weeks.

Client side

  1. PCTeX will run from the server and need not be installed on the client machine.
  2. The first time PCTeX is run on a new client machine it will ask for a Registration code. Use the regular registration code provided, and not the Server registration code.
  3. The first time PCTeX is run on a new client machine it will ask for a TeX archives path. The location recommended by PCTeX is best, though this can be changed. If changed, the TeX archives path should be accessible to any user who logs on to the machine.

Client Roaming folder

Each client user who logs on to a machine and uses PCTeX will have his or her Roaming PCTeX folder. When logging on, the Roaming folder will be copied from the network to the current machine, and when logging off the folder will be copied out to the network. This allows a user to carry customizations from machine to machine.

The Roaming folder contains:

  • User document templates
  • Foreign language settings
  • Spell check custom dictionaries
  • User-installed fonts


Keywords: install, network, tip, v6